“I have always been spurred on my dreams like people like Martin Luther King,” said Judge Karen, the star of a TV court show.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - After charming the sellout audience at the MLK Unity Breakfast today by declaring Huntsville the "best city in Alabama," Judge Karen gave Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of equality a 21st century perspective.

"I have always been spurred on my dreams like people like Martin Luther King," said Judge Karen, the star of a TV court show. "There's a quote of Martin Luther King that says, 'Faith is taking the first step even if it you don't see the staircase.'

"I love that quote because I truly believe that nobody can stop you from doing what you want to do. Nobody can."

Karen Mills-Francis - the TV personality known for her blonde hair and burgundy robe - addressed about 1,200 people at the Von Braun Center North Hall for the annual breakfast honoring King.

With her voice rising so as to almost render the microphone pointless, she urged the audience to make a difference in the lives of their children as well as others just as King did at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.

King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, a day after giving his famous "I have been to the mountain top" speech.

"A lot of times when we hear the word martyr, we think about somebody who is willing to die for a cause," Judge Karen said. "But another definition of martyr is someone who is willing to make a sacrifice for a great cause -- someone who is willing to be uncomfortable for a greater cause.

"People say we black people need more leaders but I say we need more martyrs."

She then cited the work of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, which presents the MLK breakfast each year.

"These are men who have professions, these are men who have wives and families and other obligations in the community and they sacrifice their wives, their children and their other obligations and their jobs to create events like this for the future of our children," she said. "And I say they are martyrs.

"Those of us who benefited from the martyrdom of others, we have an obligation to create dreams."

If not for dreams, there would be no Judge Karen, she said.

She talked about growing up poor in Miami Beach - "I was not born with a silver spoon. I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth" - and became her high school valedictorian even though school officials told her parents she needed to be held back in school because she wasn't as smart as her classmates.

After practicing law for 13 years, she was twice elected judge in Broward County in Florida before working with children's advocacy and domestic violence groups.

Judge Karen's television show has been canceled twice but is now aired on the BET network.

"It's got to be more than words," she said. "We have to create dreams for ourselves and we have to create dreams for our children. You need to create blanks and fill in those blanks.

"I think it's important we have a blank we are going to fill in."

Just as King did.

"Somebody was born in 1929 who said I want black people to be able to ride the bus," she said. "I believe we deserve the same amount of pay as a white person. I believe my child should have a better education out there.